The Connecticut Government Administration and Election Committee will hold a hearing on HB 6436 on February 18 at 9:30 a.m. It lowers the number of signatures for statewide minor party and independent candidates from 7,500 signatures, to 1,000 signatures. Also it specifies that the Secretary of State’s office will check signatures. Under current law, town clerks check them, using varying standards. The Secretary of State’s office might not have been able to do that work in the past, but nowadays every state is required by federal law to have a centralized list of registered voters.

All of the nationally-organized minor parties that petitioned for president in Connecticut in 2008 (Green, Constitution, Libertarian) failed to get on the ballot. The only statewide petition that succeeded was Ralph Nader’s petition. Thanks to Andy Rule for this news.

Georgia State Senator Gail Buckner (D-Morrow) has introduced SB 35, which requires all candidates for any district office to swear under penalty of perjury that they live in the district they seek to represent. The bill does not make an exemption for U.S. House candidates, and therefore would be unconstitutional if it were enacted. The U.S. Constitution does not require candidates for U.S. House to live in any particular district, and states are not permitted to add to the qualifications for U.S. House.

On February 13, the South Dakota Senate Local Government Committee passed HB 1019 unanimously. It had already passed the House. It codifies the ability of political parties to say whether or not they wish to let independent voters vote in their primaries. The party must decide by January 1 of any election year. It is not clear how this will work in the case of parties that qualify after January 1.